Arthritis is a painful and often crippling disease that initially results in painful, swollen, and inflamed joints. It often progresses to deform or completely destroy joints that then require replacement. This disease is a result of the body mistakenly attacking type II collagen, which is the major structural component of cartilage tissue. One function of cartilage tissue is that it serves as a lubricant in the joints, keeping bone from rubbing on bone. As the disease progresses and more of the cartilage is destroyed, bone does begin to wear on bone. The two most prominent types of arthritis are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The usefulness of undenatured Type II Collagen has been shown in ameliorating the symptoms of Osteoarthritis in humans (International Journal of Medical Sciences, 2009; 6(6); 312-321), Horses (Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 32, 577-584, 2009), and Dogs (Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 28, 385-390, 2005), which are all here fully incorporated by reference.
In order to initiate rheumatoid arthritis, it appears that an individual must have an inherent susceptibility. There is now evidence that, in susceptible people, this disease is initiated by exposure to the relatively common Epstein-Barr virus. The ability of the Epstein-Barr virus to initiate Rheumatoid Arthritis has been linked to a key amino acid sequence which is identical to a sequence found in human Type II collagen. Thus, in generating antibodies to destroy the Epstein-Barr virus the body generates antibodies that are also capable of attacking its own collagen.
Osteoarthritis has recently been found to also be an attack by the autoimmune system on cartilage. It is interesting that osteoarthritis occurs in animal species that do not, as a species, have rheumatoid arthritis. These species include canine such as dogs and equine such as horses. Osteoarthritis is strongly related to age in both animals and humans. One likely reason for this age related effect is an alternate method for the autoimmune system to be activated to initiate an attack on the body's cartilage. Such activation method may involve the very life sustaining act of metabolism. In order to convert carbon based food into CO2 and energy, the body creates massive numbers (many millions) of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this process of breaking down food and producing energy, DNA chain breakage or other damage, in the average person, is said to occur over a million times per day. A large portion of this damage relates to cleavage of the DNA, which is quickly repaired or destroyed by the immune system. This very routine action of the body's immune system is absolutely vital to human life. Some of the damaged molecules have the potential to cause the immune system to generate antibodies that are then capable of attacking the body's own collagen. When a body ages, a combination of effects cause it to become more susceptible to this osteoarthritis inducement. In some cases the DNA damage repair system becomes weaker. In other cases there may simply be a gradual built up and accumulation of the water soluble molecular fragments that have the potential to generate antibodies that are capable of attacking the body's own collagen. When a sufficient accumulation of these water soluble molecular fragments occurs, the collagen destroying antibodies are activated.
In order to study the effect of proposed techniques for amelioration of arthritis, it is necessary to have arthritic animals. Two techniques to artificially induce arthritis in rats have been developed. These inducements have been accomplished, more quickly than for osteoarthritis in humans, but in a similar manner. With rats the newer technique is by the intradermal (under the skin) injection of a broken down, water soluble fragment of undenatured Type II collagen (extracted from chicken cartilage). This technique has been termed Collagen Induced Arthritis (CIA). The second and older technique is accomplished by intradermal injection of the well known Microbacterium tuberculosis (MT).
It was also shown that rats could be prevented from getting arthritis induced or the effects of inducement greatly reduced. This prevention was accomplished by feeding (or arterial injection) of the same broken down, water soluble fragment of Type II collagen for several days prior to the attempted inducement. It was also shown that, once arthritis has been induced, the effects of the disease could be reduced by the continual oral administration of the same broken down, water soluble fragment of Type II collagen. In later clinical studies with humans having arthritis oral administration of the broken down, water soluble fragment of Type II collagen was similarly beneficial in reducing the effects of the disease.
Oral administration of this broken down, water soluble, undenatured fragment of Type II collagen represents the very first technique for amelioration of the symptoms of arthritis that represented a reversal rather than simply a slowing of the progress of the disease. This oral technique is believed to effectively reverse the debilitating effects of arthritis by causing desensitization to Type II collagen. After this desensitization the body stops producing antibodies that destroy its own collagen. This process has been called “oral tolerization” which is a partially understood process which the body uses to stop a person's immune system from treating food as a hostile foreign body. If foreign proteins are introduced via the digestive system, the body automatically suppresses the immune system responses to these proteins. It is a technique that has been used in the past to ameliorate simple allergies such as an allergic reaction to poison ivy or pollen.
While this oral administration of a broken down, undenatured, water soluble fragments of Type II collagen represents a long sought and highly desired technique for amelioration of the symptoms of arthritis, the broken down, water soluble fragments of Type II collagen are difficult to prepare. Typically they are extracted from the tiny sterile cartilages of 2.5 week old chicks. In a preparation of this prior art, eighty animals were required to produce 19 g of cleaned sterile cartilage dissected free of surrounding tissue. It is typical of the prior art to perform up to seven operations, consisting of extractions or digestions, on each batch of tissue in order to obtain the broken down, water soluble fragment of Type II collagen. The procedure of this prior art is thus seen to have several serious deficiencies. An extremely large number of animals are required to obtain a small amount of the desired product. The purification procedure is very time consuming, requiring multiple extractions, digestions, and precipitations. Sometimes ultra filtration of the final product is required as a final step to remove pathogens from the water soluble product.
It was later discovered by Moore that it was not necessary to break the undenatured Type II collagen into a water soluble state to obtain the full anti arthritic effect when ingested. Moore in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,645,581; 5,637,321; 5,529,786; and 5,750,144 (which are hereby fully incorporated by reference) surprisingly found that the normal digestive process was sufficient. That is, when the whole, undenatured cartilage is digested, the effective amino acid sequence is separated and passed into the blood stream where it can reduce the symptoms of arthritis. This accomplishes the same goal as the earlier experiments with rats where the desired effect was obtained by direct injections of the water soluble fragment into the blood stream. This 26 amino acid sequence has been identified and presented by Trentham in U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,347 (which patent is hereby incorporated in full by reference). It was shown that this sequence, though difficult to prepare from sequencing monomeric amino acids, had amelioration effects for arthritis.
In the above-referenced Moore patents it was found preferable to utilize the much larger cartilage from young four to six or more month old chickens. Such usage made more cartilage available and was also easier to maintain in a sanitary state. Although Moore preferred chicken cartilage, Moore taught that cartilage from other animal tissue containing Type II collagen could be effectively utilized. Bovine or porcine cartilage, or vitreous humor of eyes, for example, could be used if desired, although the solid cartilage was preferred and chicken sternal cartilage was most preferred. Moore's technique for preparation of cartilage for oral administration to humans consisted of first dissected the cartilage free of surrounding tissues so that the cartilage could be, for example, diced into smaller pieces. The diced cartilage was then sterilized by means known in the art and, for example, formed into capsules containing therapeutic levels of Type II collagen, said levels being at least about 0.01 gram and preferably from about 0.1 to about 0.5 grams of cartilage to provide a therapeutic dose. The use of more mature chickens in the Moore approach was surprising in view of the prior art which taught only the use of chicks of less than three weeks of age. The usefulness of the more mature chickens allowed an almost 100 fold increase in the amount of harvestable cartilage from a single animal. This, of course, made the desired product more readily available in therapeutic quantities, and also greatly decreased the possibility of micro-contamination due to the reduced handling during separation from relatively fewer animals.
It is difficult to preserve cartilage in its native undenatured state and thus maintain its effectiveness in alleviating the symptoms of autoimmune diseases. In the past, it has been possible to preserve the cartilage by two techniques. First, by cleansing, cooling, and storing the cartilage at very low temperatures Moore in the above patents, demonstrated that the collagen can be preserved successfully for an extended period. This storage is without the growth of harmful pathogens or change in structure of the collagen which would cause it to become denatured and thus lose its effectiveness. This process has the requirement to cleanse prior to cooling, by sterilization, for example, with chlorine producing agents and/or hydrogen peroxide. Second, by drying cleansed cartilage under special low temperature conditions, in the presence of an inorganic salt, the storage life of the collagen is greatly extended. This was shown in the work of Schilling et. al. (U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,820), which is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. The Schilling procedure has the disadvantage of requiring a long, low temperature drying step.
In cleaning and preparation for use, the cartilage is difficult to completely free from biological contamination such as pathogens and other microbes in order to maintain its safety. These pathogens, other microbes, and the like must be removed to render the undenatured Type II collagen fit for human or animal consumption, even after extensive storage. It is desired to have the cartilage free of additives and easy to handle, store, ship, and consume.
The use of carbon dioxide gas to inhibit the growth of micro organisms and extend the storage life of fruits, vegetables and meats is well known. This knowledge goes back to the time of the Romans who would pack caves with fruit to let the off gasses due to ripening, largely CO2, accumulate and slow the ripening and thus prolong the eatable quality of the food. This extension in usefulness of the produce is sometimes measured in hours in the case of cut fruit for example. Such extension in useful life is often measured in days for items such as meat and poultry. The inhibition in ripening for uncut apples and other thickly skinned whole fruits is often measured in weeks as is pointed out, for example, in the Journal of food protection (Daniels;volume 48, issue 6, 1985, pages 537-537) which is hereby fully incorporated by reference.
The use of carbon dioxide has long been recognized as a means to merely retard the deterioration and spoilage of butchered meat or otherwise comminuted food types of substances and thus increase, in a small way, the useful storage life. This retardation has involved addition of at best only a few additional days of useful life. A summary is shown in the above article by Daniels Brecht, (Food Technology Vol 34, 1980; page 45-50) in another summary of the use of controlled atmosphere to retard spoilage of produce cites some negative results on the use of CO2. Acetaldehyde accumulation for one example or ultrastructure alterations for another example that suggested that CO2 induces an uncontrolled breakdown of tissue. The product of our invention does not have these negative results.
Ogilvy (Food technology; Vol. 5; 1951; pp 97-102; “Post-mortem Changes in Meats II. The Effects of Atmospheres Containing Carbon Dioxide in Prolonging the Storage Life of Cut-up Chicken” examined the effects of CO2 on prolonging the storage life of cut-up chicken. He used the concentration of slime forming bacteria reaching a count or 2×108 per square centimeter as an end of useful life. This level is believed to be well above the slime forming bacteria concentration when a visible haze forms in the slightly contaminated cartilage stored in the aqueous CO2 of our invention. Ogilvy also noted a common problem when CO2 is used to store meat or fish. That problem is discoloration, with a undesired dark brown color developing in bird flesh. The products of our invention are surprisingly void of such discoloration at even the highest CO2 levels. The product of our invention is very white, or clear unless purposefully colored with an added die or other coloring material. Ansuetto et al (“Microatmospheric packaging of Apples”; Paper presented at Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting, Anaheim Calif.; Jun. 10-13, 1984) examined straw berries, along with other produce. He cited data showing that strawberries are particularly susceptible to decay. He extended storage from less than 3 days to about 6 days using a 30% CO2 atmosphere in the packages. He also pointed out some cases where higher levels of CO2 are harmful, where berries must be shipped with “scrubbers” such as lime.